Adaptive optic beamshaping in laser processing systems

ABSTRACT

A laser processing system quickly and flexibly modifies a processing beam to determine and implement an improved or optimum beam profile for a particular application (or a subset of the application). The system reduces the sensitivity of beam shaping subsystems to variations in the laser processing system, including those due to manufacturing tolerances, thermal drift, variations in component performance, and other sources of system variation. Certain embodiments also manipulate lower quality laser beams (higher M 2  values) to provide acceptable shaped beam profiles.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to laser processing. More particularly, thisdisclosure relates to using adaptive optics to rapidly change the shapeof a spatial intensity profile of a laser beam during materialprocessing.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Many laser processing systems use a process spot with a specifiedspatial intensity profile at a work surface to optimize a particularlaser process. Beamshaping methods for producing the desired spatialintensity profile include, for example, using diffractive and refractiveoptic elements. These approaches pose design challenges, however, due torestrictive input laser beam tolerances (e.g., for position, diameter,mode quality, and other parameters) generally required to maintainacceptable output beam characteristics. Production laser processingsystems are generally designed to meet such output laser beamcharacteristics despite variations in input laser beam characteristicsand/or laser beam delivery optics. Such variations may occur, forexample, over time, as temperature changes, and/or with variations insystem components (e.g., from one system to another system).

Typical approaches for generating a laser beam with a desired spatialintensity profile use pre-designed hard optical elements, which rely oncertain beam characteristics for proper operation. For example, adiffractive optical element (DOE) produces a shaped beam with desiredcharacteristics (e.g., peak intensity variation, spatial cutoff band,maximum sidelobe amplitude, and other characteristics) when used with aGaussian beam that has a particular centroid, X and Y diameter, spatialmode content, and wavefront error. The output shaped beamcharacteristics degrade, however, as the input beam characteristicsdeviate from the specifications used to design the DOE.

Because a DOE is generally made for a particular application, the outputbeam shape cannot be easily modified once the DOE is designed. Thus, ifa particular laser process uses a new output beam shape or a variety ofoutput beam shapes for optimum process quality or speed, the existingmethods that use pre-designed hard optical elements are cumbersomeand/or impractical. An exception to this is the manipulation of theoutput beam by scaling (e.g., through variable magnification) androtation (e.g., through devices such as Dove prisms). These methods areadequate in some applications but may be inadequate or restrictive otherapplications.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

Thus, certain embodiments disclosed herein include a laser processingsystem that quickly and flexibly modifies the processing beam todetermine and implement an improved or optimum beam profile for aparticular application (or a subset of the application). The systemreduces the sensitivity of beam shaping subsystems to variations in thelaser processing system, including those due to manufacturingtolerances, thermal drift, variations in component performance, andother sources of system variation. Certain embodiments also manipulatelower quality laser beams (higher M² values) to provide acceptableshaped beam profiles.

In one embodiment, a method for processing a workpiece uses a laser beamwith a selectively shaped spatial intensity profile. The method includesassociating a first portion of the workpiece with a first set ofprocessing characteristics and a second portion of the workpiece with asecond set of processing characteristics. The method also includesassociating a first spatial intensity profile with the first set ofcharacteristics and a second spatial intensity profile with the secondset of characteristics. One or more adaptive optics modulate at leastone of the phase and the amplitude of an input laser beam to generate anoutput laser beam that has the first spatial intensity profile. Theoutput laser beam having the first spatial intensity profile thenprocesses the first portion of the workpiece. The method also includesdynamically switching, within a predetermined switching time, from thefirst spatial intensity profile of the output laser beam to the secondspatial intensity profile of the output laser beam by adjusting themodulation of the input laser beam using the one or more adaptive opticelements, and processing the second portion of the workpiece using theoutput laser beam having the second spatial intensity profile. Thepredetermined switching time according to some embodiments is in a rangebetween approximately 100 μs and approximately 5 ms.

In another embodiment, a laser processing system uses a selectivelyshaped spatial intensity profile to process a workpiece. The systemincludes a laser source to generate an input laser beam, and a spatialfilter to spatially separate the input laser beam into a first beamcomponent that has a low-order transverse mode and a second beamcomponent that has a higher-order transverse mode as compared to that ofthe first beam component. The system also includes a first adaptiveoptic element to modulate at least one of the phase and the amplitude ofthe first beam component, a second adaptive optic element to modulate atleast one of the phase and the amplitude of the second beam component,and optics to recombine the modulated first beam component and themodulated second beam component into an output laser beam for processingthe workpiece.

Additional aspects and advantages will be apparent from the followingdetailed description of preferred embodiments, which proceeds withreference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a laser processing system that includes aphase/amplitude modulator according to one embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a method for laser processing differentportions of a workpiece with different spatial intensity profilesaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a cross-sectional side viewof a deformable mirror usable as a phase/amplitude modulator accordingto one embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a laser processing system that includesfeedback according to one embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a laser processing method using feedbackaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a laser processing system configured toseparately modify high quality beam modes and low quality beam modesaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating the spatial filtering of thelaser processing system shown in FIG. 6 according to one embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a laser processing method thatseparately modifies high quality beam modes and low quality beam modesaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a spatial filter for separating a linearlypolarized processing beam into high quality and low quality componentsaccording to one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Adaptive optics are integrated into an optical train of a laserprocessing system to flexibly and rapidly shape the spatial intensityprofile of the processing beam. The adaptive optics are configured tophase modulate and/or amplitude modulate the laser beam so as to rapidlyswitch between two spatial intensity profiles. While both phase and/oramplitude modulation may be used in the embodiments discussed herein,phase modulation may be preferred in certain embodiments due to itsability to maintain a relatively higher optical efficiency than that ofamplitude modulation. The time used by the laser processing system tochange its output from a first spatial intensity profile to a secondspatial intensity profile may be referred to herein as a “switchingtime.” In one embodiment, for example, the switching time of the laserprocessing system is in a range between approximately 100 μs andapproximately 5 ms. An artisan will recognize from the disclosure hereinthat other switching times may also be used, based on the responsivenessof the adaptive optics selected for a particular application.

The laser processing system according to one embodiment is configured togenerate a shaped processing beam with characteristics that may beselectively modified. For example, the system may generate a laser beamthat has an elliptically shaped spatial intensity profile to cut alinear portion of a trench in a workpiece. The system may then switch toa laser beam that has a circularly shaped spatial intensity profile tocut a curved portion of the trench in the workpiece. In another example,the system may process a portion of a workpiece feature using arelatively large shaped beam, and the system may process another portionof the feature using a tightly focused Gaussian spot. As anotherexample, the system may process a low-density area using a first shapedbeam of a particular size and fluence. The system may then process adenser area using a second, smaller shaped beam with equivalent power,but with a higher fluence than that of the first shaped beam. In yetanother example, the system may change the orientation of a shaped beamduring processing of the workpiece. For example, the system may rotatean axis of a rectangular beam by approximately 90° (e.g., from an X-axisto a Y-axis) when cutting a corner section of a trench in a workpiece.

In addition, or in another embodiment, the laser processing systemprovides feedback to the adaptive optics for additional or correctiveadjustments to the desired spatial intensity profile. For example, theoptimum characteristics (e.g., shape, resolution, apodization,wavefront, and other characteristics) of the processing beam may not bewell known in advance. In such embodiments, the system is configured toquickly modify processing beam profiles and evaluate their performanceon the workpiece. As discussed above, iterating through a series ofhard-optic beam shapers to evaluate the resulting profiles may beprohibitive and undesirable. The embodiments disclosed herein, however,greatly simplify this process.

In addition, or in another embodiment, the laser processing systemincludes a spatial filter separator to separate high quality beam modes(e.g., TEM₀₀ modes) from low quality beam modes (e.g., non-TEM₀₀ modes).The system separately modifies the high quality beam modes and the lowquality beam modes using, for example, two or more adaptive opticcomponents. The system then combines the modified high quality modeswith the modified low quality modes for workpiece processing. Generally,conventional systems that use spatial filtering substantially remove thelower quality beam modes from the output beam. This increases theresolution of the output beam at the expense of reducing the outputbeam's power. By separately modifying the high and low quality modesusing adaptive optics, as disclosed herein, the system can recombine themodes to generate a high resolution profile with reduced power loss.

Thus, the laser processing system can use, or adjust for, a degraded orlow quality input laser beam. For example, it may be beneficial to makeuse of laser sources that have desirable characteristics (e.g., pulseenergy, pulse frequency, pulse width, wavelength, and othercharacteristics), but which have degraded beam quality (e.g., M² beamquality). Conventional beamshaping optics may require and/or assume thatthe input beam is a high quality (low M²) beam. If the input beamquality is degraded, the output beam shape generally suffersdegradation, occasionally to the point where it cannot efficiently orreasonably be used in the desired application. In some cases, thecharacteristics of individual beams are acceptable (if known during thebeamshaping design process), but vary during laser processing such thatconsistent performance is not easily obtained. Certain embodimentsdisclosed herein, however, allow the system to separately modify thehigh and low quality components of the input beam so that even a lowquality or degraded input beam can be used to process the workpiece.

Reference is now made to the figures in which like reference numeralsrefer to like elements. In the following description, numerous specificdetails are provided for a thorough understanding of the embodimentsdisclosed herein. However, those skilled in the art will recognize thatthe embodiments can be practiced without one or more of the specificdetails, or with other methods, components, or materials. Further, insome cases, well-known structures, materials, or operations are notshown or described in detail in order to avoid obscuring aspects of theembodiments. Furthermore, the described features, structures, orcharacteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or moreembodiments.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a laser processing system 100 that includesa phase/amplitude modulator 110 according to one embodiment. The laserprocessing system 100 may also include an objective lens 112 and acontrol system 114. The control system 114 may include, for example, aprocessor and a computer storage medium (not shown) configured to storecomputer executable instructions and data used to perform the methodsdescribed herein. The phase/amplitude modulator 110 includes adaptiveoptics that are integrated into the optical train of the laserprocessing system 100 so as to flexibly and rapidly shape the spatialintensity profile of an input processing laser beam 116. The objectivelens 112 focuses the conditioned processing laser beam 118 received fromthe phase/amplitude modulator 110 onto a workpiece 120 (e.g., forscribing, dicing, via drilling, and/or other material processing), toproduce the desired shaped processing beam.

As shown in FIG. 1, the phase/amplitude modulator 110 is configured tophase and/or amplitude modulate the input processing beam 116 based oncontrol signals received from the control system 114. The operation ofthe phase/amplitude modulator 110 may be based on fundamental Fourieroptics, e.g., the Fourier transform of the beam at a front principalplane of a lens is produced at a back focal plane of the lens. Thus, thephase/amplitude modulator 110 manipulates the phase and/or amplitudecharacteristics of the input processing beam 116 to generate anarbitrarily shaped spatial intensity profile at the output focal plane.As an artisan will recognize from the disclosure herein, the shape ofthe spatial intensity profile may depend on the diffraction constraintsof the optical system (e.g., related to beam diameter, focal length, andother constraints).

In one embodiment, the control system 114 provides a predetermined setof input signals to the phase/amplitude modulator 110 so as to generatea particular spatial intensity profile for the output beam 118. Forexample, given known input beam 116 characteristics (e.g., phase andamplitude distribution), and desired output beam 118 characteristics,the control system 114 may precalculate the characteristics of thephase/amplitude modulator 110 (assuming a feasible solution exists giventhe diffraction constraints of the optical system). In one embodiment,an iterative Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm, for example, may be used toprecalculate the modulation. The characteristics of the phase/amplitudemodulator 110 may be based, for example, on previously performed testsor experiments corresponding to a particular spatial intensity profile.

In one embodiment, the control system 114 precalculates input signals orcharacteristics of the phase/amplitude modulator 110 for a number ofdifferent desirable output beam 118 characteristics. Thus, thephase/amplitude modulator 110 may switch its characteristics duringprocessing to provide the various output beams as dictated by thecontrol system 114. As discussed above, the phase/amplitude modulator110 may switch its characteristics based on a particular feature orportion of the workpiece 120 being processed (e.g., changing from alinear to a curved portion of a trench, or changing from a low-densityarea to a high-density area.

For example, FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a method 200 for laser processingdifferent portions of a workpiece with different spatial intensityprofiles according to one embodiment. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, themethod 200 includes generating 210 an input laser beam 116 andmodulating 212 the phase and/or amplitude of the input laser beam 116 toobtain a first spatial intensity profile. The method 200 also includesprocessing 214 a first portion of the workpiece 120 with an output laserbeam 118 having the first spatial intensity profile. The control system114 may be programmed, for example, to associate the first portion ofthe workpiece 120 with the first spatial intensity profile. In oneembodiment, the first portion of the workpiece 120 may be associatedwith a type of feature (e.g., linear trench, curved trench, or materialwith a particular density) or structure (e.g., fusible link) that, inturn, is associated with the first spatial intensity profile.

The method 200 also includes modulating 216 the phase and/or amplitudeof the input laser beam 116 to obtain a second spatial intensityprofile. The method 200 further includes processing 218 a second portionof the workpiece 120 with the output laser beam having the secondspatial intensity profile. As with the first spatial intensity profile,the control system 114 may be programmed to associate the second portionof the workpiece 120 with the second spatial intensity profile and/or atype of feature or structure associated with the second spatialintensity profile.

Using adaptive optics to modulate the phase and/or amplitude of theinput processing beam 116, the method 300 provides fast switching timesbetween the first spatial intensity profile and the second spatialintensity profile. Amplitude modulation may be achieved, for example,using a micromirror array. However, amplitude-only modulation may havelimited optical efficiency and spot size. Thus, in certain embodiments,phase modulation is combined with (or used in place of) amplitudemodulation. As discussed above, in one embodiment, the switching time isin a range between approximately 100 μs and approximately 5 ms. Anartisan will recognize from the disclosure herein that many otherswitching times may also be used that are less than approximately 100 μsand greater than approximately 5 ms. For example, in one embodiment, theswitching times may be as low as approximately 10 μs when using anelectro-optic spatial light modulator.

As discussed above, the phase/amplitude modulator 110 includes adaptiveoptic elements that can implement beam shaping according to theembodiments disclosed herein. Such adaptive optic elements have not beenwidely used in laser processing applications due to their relativelyhigh cost and lack of industrial-quality components. Recently, however,the selection of such components has broadened as costs have lowered toacceptable levels. Further, adaptive optic components that tolerate highpower levels are becoming available due to the application ofhigh-reflectivity dielectric coatings.

Liquid crystal based adaptive optic components, for example, may be usedas phase/amplitude modulators 110. A liquid crystal modulator (notshown) may include an array of nematic or ferroelectric liquid crystalelements located between two layers of electrodes. One layer ofelectrodes may be micro-patterned to form an electrode array. Byapplying different voltages on the electrodes, the orientation of theliquid crystal molecules changes correspondingly. Thus, the refractiveindex or absorption in each liquid crystal element can be adjusted tomodulate the wavefront of the input laser beam 116.

Another type of adaptive optic component is a deformable mirror. Forexample, FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a cross-sectionalside view of a deformable mirror 300 usable as a phase/amplitudemodulator 110 according to one embodiment. The deformable mirror 300includes a reflective coating 310 on a silicon wafer mirror frame 312.The reflective coating 310 and mirror frame 312 are located over amirror membrane 314 and conductive coating 316. The mirror membrane 314may include, for example, a thin layer (e.g., on the order ofapproximately 1 μm thick) of silicon nitride. The mirror membrane 314and conductive coating 316 are separated from a silicon wafer pad arraysubstrate 318 by spacers 320. An actuator pad array 322 comprising aconductive material (e.g., gold) is formed over the silicon wafer padarray substrate 318. In operation, control voltages are applied to theactuator pad array 322 to electrostatically deform the mirror membrane314. Thus, the control system 114 shown in FIG. 1 may provide controlsignals to the actuator pad array 322 to provide mirror surfaceoptimization capability.

An artisan will recognize from the disclosure herein that the particularliquid crystal modulator and deformable mirror 300 described above areprovided for illustrative purposes only, and that other configurationsor adaptive optic components may also be used. For example, deformablemirrors may include segmented deformable mirrors formed by independentflat mirror segments, microelectormechanical systems (MEMS), or bimorphdeformable mirrors formed by two or more layers of different materials.

Unlike liquid crystal modulators, deformable mirrors are generally notnaturally programmable devices that can produce arbitrary shapes. Somedeformable mirror technologies may be calibrated for use in “open-loop”mode to produce an arbitrary shape (within specified accuracy bounds).For example, Iris AO, Inc. of Berkeley, Calif. and other manufacturersprovide deformable mirrors that can be well calibrated. When such adeformable mirror is used, the input beam characteristics may be sensedand the deformable mirror commanded in an open-loop manner without theneed for feedback from the mirror. While open-loop beam shape controlmay be achieved with knowledge of the characteristics of the input beam116 and the deformable mirror, however, such knowledge is not alwaysadequately available. In some cases, the characteristics of the inputbeam 116 and/or the deformable mirror may deviate from a nominalspecification. In such embodiments, the input control signals of thephase/amplitude modulator 110 are modified to obtain the desiredcharacteristics of the output beam 118. In this case, other devices maybe included in the processing system in order to monitor thecharacteristics of the input and/or output beams.

Such monitoring devices may include one or more metrology devices suchas wavefront sensors (e.g., Shack-Hartmann, pyramid, and other wavefrontsensors), point diffraction interferometers, plane mirrorinterferometers, and other metrology devices. Alternatively, thecharacteristics of the output beam 118 can be evaluated directly withelements such as charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras, complementarymetal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) cameras, thermopile arrays, photodiodearrays, knife edge detectors, slit detectors, or other direct detectiondevices.

For example, FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a laser processing system 400that includes feedback according to one embodiment. The laser processingsystem 400 includes a phase/amplitude modulator 110 for receiving aninput processing beam 116, and a beamsplitter 410 for directing aportion of the output beam 118 to a workpiece 120 through an objectivelens 112. The beamsplitter 410 also directs a portion of the output beam118 through a series of lenses 412, 414 to a wavefront sensor 416 incommunication with a control system 114. The control system 114 isconfigured to compare the characteristics of the output beam 118measured by the wavefront sensor 416 with a desired or predetermined setof characteristics. The control system 114 generates an objectivefunction value used to optimize the characteristics of the output beam118 used to process the workpiece 120. As discussed below, in someembodiments, the objective function value is in the form of an errorsignal. The lenses 412, 414 scale the split portion of the modulatedoutput beam 118 to the wavefront sensor's 416 clear aperture, and causethe beam to conjugate to the principal plane of the objective lens.Using the lenses 412, 414 to scale the beam diameter introduces ascaling of the wavefront that the control system 114 takes into accountwhen optimizing the characteristics of the output beam 118. Similarly,the control system 114 may take into account scaling of the input beam'swavefront provided by lenses 420, 422 discussed below.

In addition, or in another embodiment, the input beam 116 may also bemonitored. For example, in some embodiments the system 400 includesanother beamsplitter 418 that directs a portion of the input beam 116through another series of lenses 420, 422 to another wavefront sensor424 in communication with the control system 114. The control system 114may be configured to compare the characteristics of the input beam 116measured by the wavefront sensor 424 with a desired or predetermined setof input beam characteristics. The control system 114 may then controlthe phase/amplitude modulator 110 based at least in part on thiscomparison (e.g., it may be combined with the objective function valuediscussed above) to optimize the characteristics of the output beam 118.

By examining the characteristics of the input beam 116 and/or the outputbeam 118 and modifying the characteristics of the phase/amplitudemodulator 110 in a feedback loop, the control system 114 optimizes thedesired characteristics of the output beam 118 to within the limitationsimposed by the optical system and the characteristics of the input beam116. The laser processing system 400 dynamically corrects variations inthe characteristics of the input beam 116 if feasible (e.g., if notlimited by the constraints of the phase/amplitude modulator'scapabilities or the physical limits imposed by diffraction or etendue),which is an advantage over hard-optic DOE elements which cannot beeasily modified. Even in the case of input beam characteristics thatprevent the desired output beam characteristics from being achieved, abest-case (but sub-optimal) output beam 118 may be adequate for use inthe processing application.

Algorithms that may be used by the control system 114 to optimize theprofile of the output beam 118 include indirect methods based maximizingan objective function that quantifies desirable characteristics of theoutput beam 118. For example, the control system 114 may use numericaloptimization methods (e.g., genetic algorithms, local convexoptimization, or other known numerical methods). In another embodiment,the control system 114 may use direct methods that explicitly take intoaccount the characteristics of the input beam 116 and modify thecharacteristics of the phase/amplitude modulator 110 accordingly. Forexample, the control system 114 may directly apply Fourier transformalgorithms to reshape a given input beam 116 to generate a desiredoutput beam 118, accounting for the input beam's phase and amplitudedistortions. In another embodiment, as discussed above, an iterativeGerchberg-Saxton algorithm may be used to precalculate the modulation.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a laser processing method 500 using feedbackaccording to one embodiment. With reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, the method500 includes generating 510 an input laser beam 116 and modulating 512the phase and/or amplitude of the input laser beam to obtain an outputlaser beam 118 for processing a workpiece 120. The method 500 alsoincludes monitoring 514 one or more characteristics of at least one ofthe input beam 116 and the output beam 118. The method 500 furtherincludes adjusting 516 the modulation of the input beam 116 based on themonitored characteristics such that the output beam 118 has a desiredspatial intensity profile.

As discussed above, in certain embodiments, a laser processing systemincludes the ability to work with non-ideal, high-M² beams by separatingthe beam modes, individually manipulating the high-quality (e.g., TEM₀₀)modes and other (non-TEM₀₀) modes, and recombining the beam modes intoan output beam used for processing a workpiece. Because the higher-orderbeam components cannot produce very high resolution output beams due tothe larger etendue of such beams, such embodiments may be applicable,for example, in the case where the output beam resolution requirement ismoderate.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a laser processing system 600 configured toseparately modify high quality beam modes and low quality beam modesaccording to one embodiment. The system 600 includes an input lens 610that focuses an input processing beam 116 onto a spatial filterseparator 612 that spatially separates a low-order beam mode 614 fromthe remaining higher-order beam modes 616. The low-order beam mode 614is recollimated by a lens 618 and provided to a first phase/amplitudemodulator 110(a). The higher-order beam modes 616 are recollimated byanother lens 620 and provided to a second phase/amplitude modulator110(b).

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating the spatial filtering of thelaser processing system 600 shown in FIG. 6 according to one embodiment.In this example, it is assumed that the input beam 116 is not a perfectplane wave. Thus, because of diffraction, the input lens 610 does notfocus the input beam 116 to a single spot. Rather, as shown in FIG. 7,the input lens 610 produces a diffraction pattern 710 of light and darkregions in a focal plane (shown, e.g., in an XY plane) corresponding tothe location of the spatial filter separator 612. In this example, thediffraction pattern 710 includes a central bright spot 712 surrounded bya series of concentric rings of light 714 (four shown). An artisan willrecognize from the disclosure herein that many other diffractionpatterns are possible.

The spatial filter separator 612 may include a tilted mirror having anaperture or “pin hole” that allows the desired light to pass to thefirst phase/amplitude modulator 110(a). In this example, the centralbright spot 712 corresponding to the TEM₀₀ mode passes through the pinhole of the spatial filter separator 612 to the first phase/amplitudemodulator 110(a), and the spatial filter separator 612 reflects thenon-TEM₀₀ modes to the second phase/amplitude modulator 110(b). Analternative to the particular spatial filter separator 612 shown in FIG.6 is discussed below with respect to FIG. 9. An artisan will recognizefrom the disclosure herein that other types of spatial filters may alsobe used.

The laser processing system 600 includes a control system 114 thatindependently controls the first phase/amplitude modulator 110(b) andthe second phase/amplitude modulator 110(b) to separately modify thephase and/or amplitude of the TEM₀₀ mode and the non-TEM₀₀ modes. Ahalf-wave plate 622 rotates the polarization of one of the modulatedbeams (e.g., the high quality, low-M² mode beam in the example shown inFIG. 7) so that a polarizing beamsplitter 624 can recombined themodulated beams to form an output beam 118. An objective lens 112 thenfocuses the output beam 118 to the workpiece 120.

The control system 114 adjusts the individual modulators 110(a), 110(b)to optimize the combined output beam. In general, the high-order(non-TEM₀₀, non-Gaussian) beam forms a relatively large spot, even afteroptimization, which may be acceptable as long as this spot size iswithin the desired shaped spot size. The low-order beam (TEM₀₀ Gaussian)may then be manipulated to “fill in” the rest of the beam profile toachieve a higher resolution. By using both the low-order andhigher-order beam modes, the overall quality and resolution of theoutput beam 118 is increased without a reduction in the output beam'spower that would otherwise result from discarding the higher-order beammodes.

Although not shown in FIG. 6, one or more sensors may provide feedbackto the control system 114 for adjusting the first phase/amplitudemodulator 110(a) and/or the second phase/amplitude modulator 110(b). Forexample, the laser spot on the workpiece 120 may be imaged or a portionof the output beam 118 may be directed to a CCD camera for analysis. Thecontrol system 114 may compare the profile of the output beam sensedwith the camera to a profile of a desired or target reference beam inorder to obtain an objective function value used to adjust at least oneof the first phase/amplitude modulator 110(a) and the secondphase/amplitude modulator 110(b).

In one embodiment, the objective function value obtained by the controlsystems 114 is in the form of an error signal E_(signal). The spatialintensity profile of the target reference beam (target beam profileI_(target)) may be expressed as:

I _(target)=exp [−(a(x−x ₀))^(2m)−(b(y−y ₀))^(2n)],

where a and b define the beam width in directions x and y, m and n areintegers that specify the steepness of the beam sides, and x₀ and y₀ arethe coordinates of the beam center. For the error signal E_(signal), theRMS error between the target reference beam and the beam acquired by thecamera may be represented by:

E _(signal)=[Σ_(x)Σ_(y)(I _(target)(x, y)−I _(camera)(x, y))²]^(1/2),

where I_(camera) is the spatial intensity profile measured by thecamera.

The control system 114 uses the error signal E_(signal) to adjust theinputs (e.g., voltages applied to an electrode array of an adjustablemirror) of at least one of the first phase/amplitude modulator 110(a)and the second phase/amplitude modulator 110(b).

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a laser processing method 800 thatseparately modifies high quality beam modes and low quality beam modesaccording to one embodiment. With reference to FIGS. 6 and 8, the method800 includes generating 810 an input laser beam 116, and spatiallyfiltering the input laser beam 116 to generate a first beam component614 that has a low-order transverse mode and a second beam component 616that has one or more higher order transverse modes.

The method 800 further includes modulating 814 the phase and/oramplitude of the first beam component 614 based on a first set ofmodulation parameters. The first set of modulation parameters may beselected, for example, based on a desired spatial intensity profileand/or resolution. The method 800 also includes modulating 816 the phaseand/or amplitude of the second beam component 616 based on a second setof modulation parameters. The second set of modulation parameters may beselected, for example, based on the desired spatial intensity profile.In certain embodiments, the second set of modulation parameters isdifferent than the first set of modulation parameters.

The method 800 also includes combining 818 the modulated first beam withthe modulated second beam to obtain an output laser beam 118 that hasthe desired resolution and spatial intensity profile substantiallylocated at the focal plane of the objective lens 112. The method 800further includes processing 820 a workpiece 120 with the output laserbeam 118.

This approach allows the two modulators 110(a), 110(b) to separatelymanipulate the two beams 614, 616 and use the capabilities of each beam614, 616 with little or no compromise (e.g., without reducing power bydiscarding non-TEM₀₀ modes). Another approach, however, is to use asingle modulator to manipulate the phase and/or amplitudecharacteristics of the unseparated beam, and use the optimizationmethods described above to optimize the output beam characteristics.Depending on the characteristics of the high-quality and low-qualitybeam components, and the output beam requirements, this approach may besufficient.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a spatial filter 900 for separating alinearly polarized processing beam 116 into high quality and low qualitycomponents according to one embodiment. The spatial filter 900 shown inFIG. 9 may replace the spatial filter separator 612 (and one or more ofthe lenses 610, 618, 620) in the system 600 shown in FIG. 6. The spatialfilter 900 includes a polarization sensitive beam splitter 910, aFaraday rotator 912, a first lens 914, a mirror 916 having an aperture918, and a second lens 918.

The polarization sensitive beam splitter 910 is configured to pass thelinearly polarized processing beam 116 to the Faraday rotator 912. TheFaraday rotator 912 rotates (e.g., by 45°) the polarization of thelinearly polarized processing beam 116. The first lens 914 focuses therotated beam on the aperture 918 in the mirror 916. The low-order beammode 614 of the rotated beam passes through the aperture 918 to thesecond lens 920, which recollimates the low-order beam mode 614 andpasses it to the first phase/amplitude modulator 110(a) discussed above.

The mirror 916 reflects the higher-order beam modes 616 of the rotatedbeam received from the first lens 914 back through the first lens 914and the Faraday rotator 912, which further rotates (e.g., by anadditional 45°) the polarization of the higher-order beam modes 616 suchthat they are reflected by the polarization sensitive beam splitter 910to the second phase/amplitude modulator 110(b) discussed above.

The embodiments disclosed herein provide quick and flexible modificationof the intensity profile of a processing laser beam in order todetermine and implement the optimum beam profile for a particularapplication, and/or subset of the application. This reduces thesensitivity of beam shaping subsystems to variations in the laserprocessing system, including those due to manufacturing tolerances,thermal drift, variations in component performance, and other sources ofsystem variation. Certain embodiments manipulate lower quality laserbeams (higher M² values) to provide acceptable shaped beam profiles. Theembodiments described herein also simultaneously provide additionalfunctions such as beam alignment, focal plane adjustment, processingbeam wavefront correction, and other advantages.

It will be understood by those having skill in the art that many changesmay be made to the details of the above-described embodiments withoutdeparting from the underlying principles of the invention. For example,in one embodiment, the corrected output of the phase/amplitude modulator110 shown in FIG. 4 may be directed to a diffractive optical element(DOE) that shapes the output beam 118 with desired characteristics(e.g., peak intensity variation, spatial cutoff band, maximum sidelobeamplitude, and other characteristics). The phase/amplitude modulator 110accounts for deviations in the input beam 116 such that the DOE operatesas intended. Those skilled in the art will recognize other variations tothe disclosed embodiments from the disclosure herein. The scope of thepresent invention should, therefore, be determined only by the followingclaims.

1. A method for processing a workpiece using a laser beam with aselectively shaped spatial intensity profile, the method comprising:associating a first portion of the workpiece with a first set ofprocessing characteristics and a second portion of the workpiece with asecond set of processing characteristics; associating a first spatialintensity profile with the first set of characteristics and a secondspatial intensity profile with the second set of characteristics, thefirst and second spatial intensity profiles corresponding to respectiveshapes of an output laser beam substantially incident on a focal planeof an objective lens; modulating at least one of the phase and theamplitude of an input laser beam to generate an output laser beam havingthe first spatial intensity profile, wherein the modulation is performedby one or more adaptive optic elements; processing the first portion ofthe workpiece using the output laser beam having the first spatialintensity profile; dynamically switching, within a predeterminedswitching time, from the first spatial intensity profile of the outputlaser beam to the second spatial intensity profile of the output laserbeam by adjusting the modulation of the input laser beam using the oneor more adaptive optic elements; and processing the second portion ofthe workpiece using the output laser beam having the second spatialintensity profile.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the switching timebetween the first spatial intensity profile and the second spatialintensity profile is in a range between approximately 10 μs andapproximately 5 ms.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:measuring attributes of at least one of the input laser beam and theoutput laser beam; determining an objective function value betweenpredetermined attributes of the first spatial intensity profile and themeasured attributes; and adjusting the modulation of the input laserbeam based on the objective function value to optimize the first spatialintensity profile.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or moreadaptive optic elements are selected from the group comprising adeformable mirror, a liquid crystal modulator, and an electro-opticspatial light modulator.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprisingspatially filtering the input laser beam into a first beam componenthaving a low-order transverse mode and a second beam component having ahigher-order transverse mode as compared to that of the first beamcomponent.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein modulating comprises:modulating the first beam component using a first set of modulationcharacteristics; modulating the second beam component using a second setof modulation characteristics that are independent of the first set; andrecombining the modulated first beam component and the modulated secondbeam component to produce one of the first spatial intensity profile andthe second spatial intensity profile.
 7. A laser processing system usinga selectively shaped spatial intensity profile, the system comprising: alaser source to generate an input laser beam; a spatial filter tospatially separate the input laser beam into a first beam componenthaving a low-order transverse mode and a second beam component having ahigher-order transverse mode as compared to that of the first beamcomponent; a first adaptive optic element to modulate at least one ofthe phase and the amplitude of the first beam component; a secondadaptive optic element to modulate at least one of the phase and theamplitude of the second beam component; and optics to recombine themodulated first beam component and the modulated second beam componentinto an output laser beam for processing a workpiece.
 8. The system ofclaim 7, further comprising a control system to control the modulationof the first adaptive optic element and the second adaptive opticelement for adjusting a first spatial intensity profile of the outputlaser beam substantially located at a focal plane of an objective lens.9. The system of claim 8, wherein the control system is furtherconfigured to: select the first spatial intensity profile of the outputlaser beam when processing a first portion of the workpiece; and changethe modulation of the first adaptive optic element and the secondadaptive optic element to switch from the first spatial intensityprofile to a second spatial intensity profile substantially located atthe focal plane of the objective lens when processing a second portionof the workpiece.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein a switching timefor changing from the first spatial intensity profile to the secondspatial intensity profile is in a range between approximately 10 μs andapproximately 5 ms.
 11. The system of claim 8, further comprising asensor to measure characteristics of at least one of the input laserbeam and the output laser beam, wherein the control system determines anobjective function value between predetermined characteristics of thefirst spatial intensity profile and the measured characteristics, andwherein the control system adjusts the first adaptive optic element andthe second adaptive optic element based on the objective function value.12. The system of claim 11, wherein the sensor is selected from thegroup comprising a wavefront sensor, a charge-coupled device (CCD)camera, a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) camera, athermopile array, a photodiode array, a knife edge detector, and a slitdetector.
 13. The system of claim 7, wherein at least one of the firstadaptive optic element and the second adaptive optic element is selectedfrom the group comprising a deformable mirror, a liquid crystalmodulator, and an electro-optic spatial light modulator.
 14. The systemof claim 7, wherein the low-order transverse mode is a TEM₀₀ mode.
 15. Amethod for processing a workpiece using a laser beam with a selectivelyshaped spatial intensity profile, the method comprising: spatiallyfiltering an input laser beam into a first beam component having alow-order transverse mode and a second beam component having ahigher-order transverse mode as compared to that of the first beamcomponent; modulating at least one of the phase and the amplitude of thefirst beam component using a first set of modulation characteristics;modulating at least one of the phase and the amplitude of the secondbeam component using a second set of modulation characteristics that areindependent of the first set; recombining the modulated first beamcomponent and the modulated second beam component into an output laserbeam with a first spatial intensity profile substantially located at afocal plane of an objective lens; and processing a first portion of theworkpiece with the output laser beam.
 16. The method of claim 15,wherein the first portion of the workpiece is associated with a firsttype of feature and a second portion of the workpiece is associated witha second type of feature, the method further comprising: adjusting themodulation of at least one of the first beam component and the secondbeam component to switch from the first spatial intensity profile to asecond spatial intensity profile associated with the second type offeature; processing the second portion of the workpiece with the outputlaser beam having the second spatial intensity profile substantiallylocated at the focal plane of the objective lens.
 17. The method ofclaim 16, further comprising switching from the first spatial intensityprofile to the second spatial intensity profile during a switching timethat is in a range between approximately 10 μs and approximately 5 ms.18. The method of claim 15, further comprising: measuringcharacteristics of at least one of the input laser beam and the outputlaser beam; determining an objective function value betweenpredetermined characteristics of the first spatial intensity profile andthe measured characteristics; and adjusting the modulation of at leastone of the first beam component and the second beam component based onthe objective function value to optimize the first spatial intensityprofile.
 19. The method of claim 15, wherein modulating at least one ofthe first beam component and the second beam component comprisescontrolling modulation parameters of an adaptive optic element selectedfrom the group comprising a deformable mirror, a liquid crystalmodulator, and an electro-optic spatial light modulator.
 20. A laserprocessing system comprising: a laser source to generate an input laserbeam; an adaptive optic element to modulate at least one of the phaseand the amplitude of the input laser beam, the modulation to correct oneor more characteristics of the input laser beam; and a diffractive opticelement to shape the corrected input laser beam so as to generate anoutput laser beam having a selected spatial intensity profilesubstantially located at a focal plane of an objective lens.